Tag Archives: Lemuel Gulliver

The beauty of Colorado leaves me speechless. Yesterday I crossed the Continental Divide (also known as the Great Divide) as I made my way from Boulder to Aspen. The awe-inspiring landscapes fill one’s soul with wonderment and marvel. The expanse of the horizon and the power of nature — and the accompanying introspection — puts a lot into emotional perspective.

Above: it had snowed earlier in the day in and around Aspen. I took this shot about 5 minutes before reaching the Continental Divide.

As I travel through these (for me) uncharted landscapes, I’m feeling a little like Lemuel Gulliver. And my arrival in Aspen brought even more wonderment. When I happened upon The Grog Shop, the town’s standby wine and spirits shop, it occurred to me that there is perhaps no other place in the U.S. where bottles of Haut-Brion and Gaja — ranging from $250 to $600 apiece — are displayed six-deep on the store’s shelves.

Seems that they live well on this side of the divide.

The Grog Shop‎
710 E Durant Ave #1
Aspen, CO 81611
(970) 925-3000

In other news…

While browsing all the wines I cannot afford at the antithetically named Grog Shop, I couldn’t resist picking up a copy of The Wine Spectator’s “pizza issue.” I liked Harvey Steinman’s coverage of pizza in the U.S. but I was disappointed to see that the editors included only one Italian wine in the 75+ wines featured in their “Value Reds to Serve with Pizza” sidebar. It’s just as well: Italians generally serve beer with pizza (I have to confess, however, that one of my guilty pleasures is Nebbiolo and pepperoni pizza).